The tide began turning against the duopoly late last year when the fake news epidemic illustrated for many the lack of brand safety on Facebook and Google. Brands found out that their ads were showing up next to hate speech or agenda-driven fake news and were understandably miffed.
Fueling that anger, Facebook was caught drastically inflating its time-spent metrics for video by as much as 60-80%. More recently, Google was caught doing something similar with AMP, its mobile-based publishing platform.
Though both have subsequently agreed to third-party analyses of their operations, for many marketers, that was cold comfort since (in Facebook’s case, at least), the abuses had been happening over a long period of time.
In late January, the industry found a spokesman for their discontent with Marc Pritchard, Procter & Gamble’s global CMO, who chastised the industry for its lack of transparency. More recently, Havas pulled its buys on Google and YouTube for UK-based clients in the name of brand safety. ...
The advertiser boycotts of Bill O'Reilly on Fox News are further testament to this digital advertising trend. Brands need to be protected!